I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with the hidden meaning behind brand names. I tell anyone who’ll listen that Bisto stems from the phrase “Brown, Season and Thicken in One,” for instance. 

My partner is probably sick of hearing what Lego, Haribo, Lurpak, Roses, Twix, IKEA, Ferrero Rocher, and loads more really mean too. 

Well, good news for me: my job means I can inflict my banal discoveries on you lot instead. 

And today, that delightfully dull discovery takes the form of Nivea’s brand name. 

What does Nivea mean?

The brand says it’s actually a combination of Latin words (a bit like Hovis, which is a portmanteau of “hominis vis” meaning “strength of man”).

It refers to the colour of their landmark product, the iconic cream moisturiser. 

Per their site, Dr Isaac Lifschütz had to develop an emulsifier called Eucerit, based on lanolin, to produce the brand’s signature creamy texture. 

When Dr Oscar Troplowitz and dermatologist Professor Paul Gerson Unna saw the ingredient, they knew it’d be perfect for a moisturiser base. 

“Once the emulsion was finished, it had a snow white colour,” Nivea’s site reads.

That bright white inspired the brand’s name, it seems.

“The name Nivea comes from the Latin words ‘nix, nivis’ and means ‘snow.’ When translated, Nivea literally means ‘snow white,’” Nivea explained. 

Who knew there’d be a Disney-like connection to the name, eh?

Eucerit has its own meaning too

According to Eucerin’s site (Eucerin shares owner Beiersdorf with Nivea), Eucerit is a lanolin alcohol. 

Lanolin is a waxy substance that comes from sheep’s wool.

Nivea’s creators turned it into an emulsifier that can combine water and oil without making the resulting compound split. The addition makes the moisturiser base stable. 

And per Beiersdorf’s site, the name has its own Greek meaning ― Eucerit means “beautiful wax,” they say.

Lanolin itself is sometimes called “wool wax,” so the name makes sense. 

That’s my Nivea trivia fix for the day...